Plants and Butterflies of a Small Urban Preserve in the Central Valley of Costa Rica
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Plants and butterflies of a small urban preserve in the Central Valley of Costa Rica Kenji Nishida1,3, Ichiro Nakamura2 & Carlos O. Morales1 1. Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501-2060, San José, Costa Rica. 2. 41 Sunrise Blvd., Williamsville, NY 14221, USA; [email protected] 3. Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501-2060, San José, Costa Rica; [email protected] Received 15-IV-2008. Corrected 15-VIII-2009. Accepted 25-IX-2009. Abstract: Costa Rica’s most populated area, the Central Valley, has lost much of its natural habitat, and the little that remains has been altered to varying degrees. Yet few studies have been conducted to assess the need for conservation in this area. We present preliminary inventories of plants, butterflies, and day-flying moths of the Reserva Ecológica Leonelo Oviedo (RELO), a small Premontane Moist Forest preserve within the University of Costa Rica campus, located in the urbanized part of the Valley. Butterflies are one of the best bio-indicators of a habitat’s health, because they are highly sensitive to environmental changes and are tightly linked to the local flora. A description of the RELO’s physical features and its history is also presented with illustrations. Approximately 432 species of ca. 334 genera in 113 families of plants were identified. However, only 57 % of them represent species native to the Premontane Moist Forest of the region; the rest are either exotic or species introduced mostly from lowland. More than 200 species of butterflies in six families, including Hesperiidae, have been recorded. Rev. Biol. Trop. 57 (Suppl. 1): 31-67. Epub 2009 November 30. Key words: biodiversity, urban biological conservation, day-flying moths, Lepidoptera, premontane moist for- est, Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s Central Valley (Fig. 1), where (Sánchez-Azofeifa et al. 2001, Vega & Valerio the capital city of San José is located and 2002, Bertsch 2006, Programa Estado de la over 40% of the country’s entire population Nación 2006) and uncontrolled introduction of reside (ICT 2007), may be roughly defined as exotic and other non-local ornamental plants an area delimited by Carrizal, Grecia to Tur- (Chacón & Saborío-R 2006), especially in San rúcares in the Northwest, Cerros de Escazú José and other populated areas of the Central in the Southwest, Cerro de Ochomogo in the Valley, have adversely affected the biodiversity Southeast, and El Zurquí de Moravia in the in these areas. Lack of substantial green space Northeast. Along the edges of the Valley are that preserves natural vegetation within these several protected areas, such as the upper part populated areas is another major contributing of Cerro Carpintera, Cerros de Escazú, Braulio factor to this trend. Carrillo National Park bordering El Zurquí, and Efforts towards the inventory of Costa Zona Protectora El Rodeo, but these are essen- Rica’s biodiversity of plants, fungi, insects and tially located outside the Valley. The flat land some other invertebrates were pioneered by of the Central Valley, the so-called ‘Meseta the National Museum at the end of the XIX central’, has long been the coffee belt (León century, by the University of Costa Rica since 1948). Further reduction of the natural habitats 1941, the National University (since 1973), and Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 57 (Suppl. 1): 31-67, November 2009 31 Vega & Gloor (2001) may be the only relevant Nicaragua survey available, even though it again deals Caribbean Sea only with large protected areas. Fulton’s list (1966) of Central Valley butterflies is older, but the species obtained outside the Central Valley are included without distinguishing them from 10º N the former, depriving it of potential usefulness Costa Rica for the current purpose. With regard to plants, the floristic composition study in Zona Protec- tora El Rodeo done by Cascante M. & Estrada Pacific Ocean Ch. (2001) is probably relevant; although El Panama Rodeo is strongly influenced by the dry Central Pacific climate. It is in these contexts that we present here 85º W the results of our survey of the plants and butterflies in the Reserva Ecológica Leonelo Fig. 1. Costa Rica, Central America. The capital city, San Oviedo (RELO). This small urban preserve José, is located in the Central Valley (star). UCR main Campus is located East to the capital city. is located on the campus of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) in San Pedro, entirely sur- rounded by an urban environment (Fig. 2). Besides many small student projects related recently by the Instituto Nacional de Biodiver- to class assignment and others conducted in sidad (INBio). The latter uncovered approxi- the Preserve, only three previous studies on mately 2500 new species in the last 17 years the RELO are known with regard to the but- of operation (INBio 2004, 2005, 2007), and the terflies and plants. G. Stiles (unpublished & massive caterpillar rearing project led by D.H. pers. comm. 2005) mark-recaptured ithomiine Janzen & W. Hallwachs over nearly 30 years butterflies between 1975 and 1981; Di Stéfano has produced a large and invaluable database et al. (1996) studied regeneration of the forest on the Lepidoptera and their parasitoids of the and included a list of tree species; and A.C. Area de Conservación Guanacaste (Janzen & Guardia Orozco (1998) examined the number Hallwachs 2007a, b). These projects specifical- of species of butterflies to analyze the island ly target large protected areas. It is unfortunate effect, namely the relationship between the area that much less attention has been given to the size and the number of species in fragmented unprotected areas and urban preserves, where habitats. Additionally, an unpublished list of rapid and extensive destruction, fragmenta- the papilionid, pierid, and nymphalid butter- tion and alterations of natural habitats are in flies was compiled in 1996 by P. E. Hanson progress at an ever accelerating pace. Clearly, based on the collection of insects at the School an urgent need exists for preserving natural of Biology, UCR. habitats and studying what may still survive in Finally, a few words may be appropri- such areas. Nowhere is this need more acute ate on the advantages of studying butterflies than in the Central Valley (see Discussion), yet and plants. Invertebrates, particularly herbivo- only a few such studies have been conducted rous insects, are good bio-indicators of habitat thus far with regard to butterflies. Besides changes (Andrade-C 1998), because they are DeVries (1987, 1997), which covers the entire usually abundant, allowing quantitative and country, the list of butterflies found in the Pre- statistical analyses; easily manipulated without montane Wet- to Tropical Moist transition to altering their behavior; and tightly linked to the Premontane Forest (Holdridge 1967, Bolaños local flora (Pearson 1994). Within the insects, et al. 1999) of Zona Protectora El Rodeo by butterflies (including moths) have been used 32 Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 57 (Suppl. 1): 31-67, November 2009 as an ecological indicator of habitat conditions insect nets, but others were either collected in ecological assessment (e.g., Holloway & using banana-plantain bait traps (Austin & Hebert 1979, Daily & Ehrlich 1995, Brown Riley 1995, Shuey 1997) or were reared from 1997, New et al. 1995, Solis & Pogue 1999). their immature stages using plastic bags by the The advantages of butterflies are a) their rela- first author. The collecting was done more or tively well-known taxonomy and biology, b) less randomly throughout the years, i.e., the relative ease of observation, and c) their attrac- effort and methods were not evenly distrib- tiveness to the public in general (Andrade-C uted but opportunistic. Thus the missing dates 1998). Furthermore, they are highly sensitive of collecting in Table 2 do not indicate their to changes in the habitat and climate condi- absence. Most of the adult specimens were pin- tions such as temperature, humidity, and light mounted and preserved in the entomological intensity (Kremen 1994, Sparrow et al. 1994, collection of Museo de Zoología (MZ-UCR), Brown 1997). Escuela de Biología, UCR. Data from the We present preliminary lists of plants and students’ entomological collections and the day-flying macrolepidoptera of the RELO and butterfly list compiled by P. E. Hanson (1996) UCR campus for the first time as part of the were combined with our own data. A list of foundation for biological and ecological stud- Ithomiinae (collected between 1979 and 1980) ies in urban ecosystems (Pickett et al. 2001). provided by G. Stiles (unpublished) was added Physical description and illustrations of the in the list. Nomenclature for butterflies follows Preserve and its history, and some photos of Wahlberg et al. (2005), Lamas (2004), and butterflies and plants are included. Current Mielke (2005). The Herbarium of the Univer- conditions of the RELO and its conservation sity of Costa Rica (USJ) and Smith et al. (2004) need and importance are discussed. were consulted for identification of plants. For scientific names of plants, Missouri Botanical Garden (2007) was consulted. Host plants of MATERIALS AND METHODS reared butterflies are given in Table 1 and also found in Beccaloni et al. (2008). Identification of plants (Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta: Gymnospermae, Angiosper- Study site: Reserva Ecológica Leonelo mae: Liliopsida, Magnoliopsida) was con- Oviedo (RELO) (ca. 1160 m above sea level; ducted mostly during August and September, 09°56’15’’N, 84°03’00’’W), commonly known 2007, using live materials and observations as ‘bosquecito’ (‘small woods’), is located on through binoculars, in and outside the RELO the campus of UCR, in San Pedro de Montes de on campus, but not beyond the Loop line Road Oca, San José province, Costa Rica (Figs. 1-5). (Fig. 5). Most of the plants were reviewed and It is located approximately in the center of the identified by the third author (C.O.M.); some loop-line road and contiguous northwestward were collected and pressed for identification at from the School of Biology building.